Pembroke College Oxford's rugby club is criticised after its social secretary
sends a vulgar email detailing plans for a drunken evening with female first-year
students

An Oxford University college rugby club has sparked outrage after its social secretary sent an email inviting players to “pick” a female fresher for a night out and spike her wine with “a substance of your choice”.

The message, headlined with a crude sexual phrase, was distributed to members of Pembroke College rugby club outlining plans for a “crew date”, an Oxford tradition where sports teams organise drunken get-togethers with other squads or drinking societies.

It added: “Every fresher in Pembroke is quaking in their boots thinking they might be picked as our date.”

The evening was due to take place on Thursday but it was cancelled after angry protests from fellow students.

Will Brown, a third-year undergraduate at the college, told Cherwell: "I, like the vast majority of students at Pembroke, was disgusted by these comments.

"They represent an ugly, corrosive form of misogyny that simply shouldn't be tolerated in any level of society, and that can't just be dismissed as yet another supposedly harmless juvenile 'joke'."

Mr Kim, a second-year history and economics student, has since resigned from the club’s committee, and many members of the team attended a meeting to discuss sexual consent organised by Pembroke’s JCR committee on Wednesday night.

Dr Clive Siviour, dean of Pembroke College, said: "The content of this email is completely unacceptable, and I am taking the appropriate action on behalf of the college authorities.

"These actions of a small number of students have been met with universal condemnation from their peers."

A spokesman for Pembroke rugby club said: "We accept that the emails circulated earlier this week about our proposed crew date were entirely misguided and represent a serious case of poor judgement.

"We would like to clarify that the ‘challenge’ proposed in advance of the intended crew date was intended to be a harmless drinking game joke, and was in no way intended to mean that the team member should lace their dates' drinks with anything illegal and/or to engage in any sexual abuse."

Pembroke’s most famous alumni include Samuel Johnson, the 18th-century writer, and Lord Heseltine, the former deputy prime minister.